


I'll know my name as it's called again

by ShariDeschain



Series: Dick and Dami Week 2019 [5]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman and Robin (Comics), Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: Dick is a proud Dad, DickandDamiweek2019, Domestic Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-12 07:21:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18441755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShariDeschain/pseuds/ShariDeschain
Summary: One night, after a particularly brilliant patrol, he puts an hand on Damian’s shoulder and says something Bruce’s never told him ― probably because he already knew it would not have been received well by him.But Damian is Damian, and not Dick, so he smiles and ruffles the kid hair as he says: “One day you’ll be a great Batman, kiddo.”#DickAndDamiWeek2019 Day 5 - Training





	I'll know my name as it's called again

The first time he puts Damian on a sparring ring the boy does his very best to try and kill him, and Dick has to use too much violence to overpower him. He ends up hurting the kid bad enough to need Alfred’s medical intervention, with a subsequent look of blatant disappointment in regard of Dick’s ability to handle the new addition to the family. Damian, on his part, looks insulted by the defeat, but doesn’t seem to mind the injuries at all. Dick knows that a secret part of the kid actually approves of his violence: if Dick hadn’t been able to beat him in a fight, Damian wouldn’t have deemed him worthy of the honor of being his mentor.

Doing what was necessary doesn’t help Dick feel better when he has to scrub Damian’s blood from his hands. Even without considering the family ties bonding them together, assassin or not, Damian is a ten years old and Dick’s responsable for him. As he washes away the last traces of the fight, Dick decides he can't do this again, that their next training needs to be different. The idea that this is what Damian expects from him makes him sick in the stomach, but he can’t tell that to anyone, except maybe Alfred ― who’s not going to offer him much sympathy, that’s for sure.

The next time they fight and Damian goes for his head in what could very well be a fatal blow, Dick grabs both of his arms, twists them just enough to hurt and forces the kid to his knees.

“No”, he says simply.

Damian looks up at him in anger, but also in surprise.

“No what?”, the boy asks, and Dick understands right away that he’s not mocking him: Damian genuinely doesn’t understand what he’s doing wrong. He releases the kid’s wrists and sits down on the mat in front of him.

“No lethal force”, he explains.

“You were supposed to stop it!”, Damian retorts indignantly, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand . “If you don’t think you’re up to me, then I suggest-”

“You were trying to kill me”, Dick interrupts him.

Damian’s eyes go wide and he makes like he wants to reply, but he stops just in time, and for a moment he just stares at him open-mouthed, in an expression that would be almost comical on him, were it not followed by a flash of shame that flushes up the boy's face even more than it already is. 

“This is how I was taught to fight”, Damian answers, biting his bottom lip, and he tries to sound arrogant, to make like he’s the one in the right here, but his body’s already betrayed him, and Dick knows this is a lesson already learnt without him repeating what Batman and Robin stand for, why they don’t kill.

He feels a pang of compassion for the kid, but he’s smart enough to keep it hidden behind a solemn expression, the kind Bruce would’ve made in a situation like this one, Dick figures.

“It was a good move”, he says in all honesty. “We just need to work on it to make it effective without the risk of becoming fatal. Okay?”

Damian nods, then looks away, shame and anger still reddening his cheeks.

Dick stands up and offers the boy his hand to do the same. Damian pulls at his last strands of pride and promptly refuses, and Dick gives him a quick fickle on the nose as punishment.

*

Watching Damian fight becomes, for Dick, something that only Bruce would understand.

It’s not easy for the kid: Dick can see the struggle every time they train, every time they go out at night. He knows Damian feels the pressure to prove himself in front of him, and that’s a good thing, but it still worries him.

Every night he waits for Damian to make a mistake, to recoil instead of attacking, to soften a blow too much and pay the price for it, to risk his own life just because Batman’s watching and he wants to make him proud.

Dick remembers how it was like for him as a kid, so eager to show Bruce how good he was at combining his previous skills with the new ones, to impress him with his moves and his talent and his dedication to the cause. And of course Damian’s nothing like him, but about this Dick feels pretty secure in assuming they’re the same. In hindsight, Bruce’s role was a lot more difficult than Dick had imagined at the time.

And still, there’s this feeling in his chest, something new and soft. He had felt something like that with Tim, when they used to practice on moving trains, but it was a different feeling then, duller than this thing that warms him every time he watched Damian fighting next to him.

Because he can see it in the way the kid moves, in how he bends and how he leans when he attacks: he can see how Damian’s first instinct is always, _always_ , a lethal one, and he sees how Damian keeps it under control without losing his footing, not allowing it to distract him even for a moment. Damian fights himself and his enemy at the same time and he always returns victorious, if only a bit ruffled.

Dick _is_ impressed. And, just like Bruce used to do back in the day, he makes sure the kid knows it.

One night, after a particularly brilliant patrol, he puts an hand on Damian’s shoulder and says something Bruce’s never told him ― probably because he already knew it would not have been received well by him. 

But Damian is Damian, and not Dick, so he smiles and ruffles the kid hair as he says: “One day you’ll be a great Batman, kiddo.”

He’s rewarded with the first real, happy smile he’s ever seen on the kid’s face, and just for that Dick feels almost like it will be all worth it.

*

Persuading Damian to skip their training turns out to be easier than Dick expected, considering that's the sole reason the child came from Gotham, abandoning his father to a solitary watch in the freezing winter rain. Damian himself doesn’t look much bothered by that treason, as he snuggles his feet under Dick’s thighs to keep them warm.

They made some popcorn with too little butter (in Dick’s opinion) and too much salt (in Damian’s opinion). After throwing several handfuls of it at each other, they settled down on the couch with a new horror movie that Damian had insisted on watching only because it was forbidden to Jon, since it was rated PG-14.

Dick had tried to object that Damian wasn’t fourteen either, but it had been a lost battle from the moment Damian had reminded him he was an assassin born and raised, thank you very much. Dick should probably have insisted more about his point, but the truth is that he was inclined to agree with Damian on the subject. The coup de grace, however, had been Damian saying to him: _"Todd would let me watch it”_. Jason would’ve been so proud to be used like this against him, Dick had thought.

He doesn't regret his decision ― partly because the movie has turned out to be short on real horrific scenes ― as he dozes off on the couch with the warm pressure of Damian’s body against him and a background music that should be creepy and instead seems perfect to lull him to sleep.

He’s almost asleep when Damian kicks him lightly in the side to attract his attention.

“Richard?”

Dick groans and refuses to open his eyes.

“No, I won’t make you more popcorn, you little brat. Especially since you’re so critical of it. Also I’m already sleeping, this is me talking in my sleep.”

He can feel Damian rolls his eyes even if he can’t actually see him.

“Richard!”, the boy protests. “This is serious!”

And to emphasize the seriousness of his intentions, Damian gives him another not so gentle kick on the shoulder.

“Ow, okay!”, Dick gives in, grabbing the wandering little feet and holding it in his hand to prevent any more kicking. “What is it, buddy?”

Damian takes a deep breath, but for a long moment he doesn’t speak, opting to keep his eyes still firmly planted on the movie still playing on the screen in front of them. A child screams with terror when a clown disguised as a leper walks towards him, and Damian finally finds the courage to open his mouth.

“What if I… what if I don’t want to become Batman?”, he asks, and his voice is soft and almost ashamed, and Dick doesn’t know what has brought this on right now, but he starts to think that maybe training was the kid’s last preoccupation tonight. “Do you think Father would be angry at me?”

Dick lets another long scream come and go between them.

“No”, he answers then, easily and in total honesty. “No, Damian. The only thing your father wants you to be is happy. And if being Batman doesn’t make you happy, then you shouldn't be Batman. It’s that simple.”

“It is a great legacy”, Damian comments.

Dick sighs.

“It is.”

No point in denying it when he’s been the first to uphold it when the circumstances had required it. Damian takes another deep breath, but this time he reaches for the remote and pauses the movie before turning to look at Dick with serious eyes.

“What about you?”, he asks. “Would _you_ be angry?”

The question should maybe surprise him, but he doesn’t. Not at all. He lets go of Damian’s feet to wrap an arm around his shoulders and draw him closer to himself.

“No.”

Damian observes him for a good second before deciding to trust him. But he still doesn’t turn back on the movie, just keeps playing with the remote for a moment or two.

“And what if I became the next Nightwing?”, he asks eventually.

This too should be unexpected. This too is not. Dick would be a liar if he said he’d never thought of Damian wearing his costume, taking up his legacy. It’s a warm thought, even if it shouldn’t be: all his life Dick did all he could to try and escape this kind of thing. And it’s still kind of weird to hear the idea coming from Damian’s mouth because that means the kid has been thinking about it too and, like Dick, must have kept that thought to himself until this very moment. 

An heartbeat go by and Dick feels overwhelmed by this whole thing, and to gain some time the only reaction he can think of is throwing his head back and laugh. 

“Do you want to put me off business already?”, he jokes. “Do I have to sleep with a knife under my pillow?”

Damian hits him again, serious as ever.

“You should always sleep with a knife under your pillow”, he scolds him. “And you didn’t answer me.”

Dick lets the laugh fade into a fond smile, and finally he feels ready to say what he’s always wanted to say.

“I would be so very proud of you.”

Damian examines him carefully again, and whatever he's looking for on Dick's face, he finally seems to find it. He nods to himself, then he sets his mouth in a hard line and looks up at him again.

“And what if I _didn’t_ became the next Nightwing either?”, he asks again. “Would you be disappointed then?”

And Dick knows this is a test, not very different from all the challenges to which both he and Bruce have subjected Damian during their continuous training.

“Never”, he answers with the same smile, and he knows he’s passed with flying color when Damian smiles back at him.

“Good”, the kid decides, then he presses play and goes back to watch his movie.

He doesn’t tell Dick if he’s really thinking of becoming or not the next Batman or the next Nightwing, doesn’t explain to him his plans for the future, and Dick’s proud of that too. He likes the idea of Damian considering his options, he likes the idea of Damian coming to the conclusion that he has, indeed, options.

It’s a big step forward for the kid he used to be.

“You know what?”, Dick says cheerfully. “I think I’ll make some more popcorn anyway. This time I’ll take care of the butter and you’ll decide how much salt to put on it. Deal?”

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the DickAndDamiWeek2019 on tumblr. [Day 5 - Training](https://unavenged-robin.tumblr.com/post/184136253933/day-5-training-the-first-time-he-puts-damian)
> 
> Yes, they're watching the new IT. Yes, I'm still standing proudly on the DamianNeedsToBeTheNextNightwing hill.


End file.
